Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:13] Hello and welcome to another episode of deep in your yoga practice. I am Lauren the Duke, the owner and founder of True Love Yoga in Kansas City, Missouri. And today we're talking about what is meditation, what isn't meditation, and if you already meditate or you would like to maybe incorporate it into your life, your meditation, curious. This episode is for you. So welcome. Welcome. I started feeling curious about meditation in my early 20s. I've talked about this before, but I grew up in a more traditionally religious household. So while I had been introduced to to prayer and contemplation, in a way, meditation was more foreign to me. But as I let go of the practices from my childhood, I was left with really not having a lot of tools to deal with my mind and body and spirit. I felt a lot of anxiety.
[00:01:12] I dealt with depression, eating disorders, et cetera, and was really looking for ways to feel connected back to myself. So I had looked into meditation and believe I was introduced to it through a Kriya yoga center that was in a neighborhood where I lived in Chicago. And a friend had invited me to a free meditation that they had on Sundays and I said yes because they had free food afterward. I was a kind of a broke student at the time, so I'd go there and meditate and then I would just try my own thing at home.
[00:01:46] This pretty much before the days of just being able to like go on Insight Timer or go to YouTube and find a meditation and go from there. I really was left more to my own devices, books, et cetera. So I would just experiment and try my own thing. And one of the ones I landed on was imagining myself as a prism and there'd be clear light going through me and I'd be turning it into all of these colors. And this is really before I knew anything about chakras. So I find that interesting now.
[00:02:15] As somebody who studied yoga and the energy, body and meditation that that is what I landed on at the time.
[00:02:24] I didn't have a more formal or educated meditation practice until I did my first yoga teacher training in 2013.
[00:02:32] And since then, I'd say that my meditation practice has evolved over time. It has been something that's quite simple. It's been something I've used 10 tech for as well. And now it's something I try to connect with on a daily basis, but in a way that isn't quite as formal all the time due to how my life is right now. But it is something that has transformed my life in so many ways. That is such an important part of the yogic path, and that I think everyone can connect to and benefit from in different ways and by taking different paths. And I think there is some resistance and confusion oftentimes around meditation. So I'm hoping to dispel some of that today and let you know how truly accessible it can be, what it is exactly, and how one might achieve it. So what is meditation? It is one of the limbs of the yogic path. I have another episode that goes through the eight limbs of Ashtanga yoga, of Patanjali's yoga sutras. And each of these limbs forms a different component of what what yoga is and how to achieve, for lack of a better word, a sense of oneness with the divine. And Diana, or meditation, is the seventh limb of yoga in Patanjali's eight limbs. So meditation isn't necessarily the beginning of the journey. It's more the fruit of consistent practice. I'll describe what I mean by that, but in layman's terms, meditation is sustained attention and awareness or connection with the self, with source, however you define it, with breath, with everyone and everything.
[00:04:19] So often what we think of today as meditation is really not quite there. That's the result of the practices that we do. This sustained attention, this connection. Typically what we're doing is the effort piece. So I'll go into that a little bit. With that being said, meditation, I think we think of as someone sitting in a beautiful location and lotus posture, and they are totally at peace. But if you actually knew what was going on in all of our minds in this process of trying to meditate, you'd know that probably whatever experience that you've had, if it hasn't been entirely peaceful, is completely normal. Meditation, or getting to a state of meditation, is all about awareness, acceptance, and interaction with our beautiful human minds and all of the funny things that they do. So there are a few misconceptions about meditation or myths. One is, I can't meditate because my mind is too busy. Like I said, that's pretty much happening with everyone who you see meditating. So meditation isn't about stopping your thoughts or having a completely clear mind. That takes a lot of practice and work. It's about observing your thoughts without attaching to them. So you might have heard this analogy before, but you can think of your thoughts, your emotions, your impressions as clouds that are floating through the sky. And as we enter this process of trying to meditate of focus, of meditation, it's just like watching the sky. So really when it becomes meditation, the thoughts are still happening. Oftentimes but we're able to see. See them as something separate from us and observe them with maybe curiosity and compassion. Another myth would be that I have to sit perfectly still for an hour. Imagine that picture I painted earlier of the person sitting in a beautiful location, perfectly still and serene. No. Are there hour long meditations? Absolutely. Would it be beneficial to be able to do that every day? Yes, yes, yes. I would love to be able to do that. But there are so many forms of meditation or mindfulness practices. They can include walking, they can include breathing, they can include mantra, visualization, etc. And they do not have to be long. You can start small, you can start with two minutes. And that is perfectly valid, perfectly fine, and still highly beneficial. Another myth would be that I must feel blissful or calm or I'm doing it wrong. Like I said, that's not often the case. And meditation, or the practices we call meditation, can bring up a lot of discomfort and restlessness because they're, they're already there in our minds and now we're taking the time to pause and observe. And that can be really uncomfortable. It's not always a calm experience.
[00:07:11] So know that that's part of the process and it's totally normal and it's something that can become a lot more tolerable over time. And that's how you know it's working. And another myth would be I'm not spiritual enough to meditate. Meditation meets you where you are. It's fun for all humans. It's beneficial for everyone. Are there spiritual forms of meditation? Absolutely. Does it have to be? No, it doesn't. It might not be meditation as it's defined in the yoga sutras, but I think our modern view on what meditation is has really expanded from that. But before I go into that, I will go into the deeper, more philosophical yogic context of meditation.
[00:07:53] Like I said, Diana or meditation, is the seventh limb of the eight limbs of yoga. The other limbs include yamas and Niyamas, which are ethical practices, Asana, which is comfortable seat, or the series of postures that we know of as yoga these days of pranayama or breath control, of Pratyahara or sense renewal of Dharana, which is focus of Diana, which is meditation, and Samadhi, which is liberation or oneness. So meditation is this bridge or this final step really before this full sense of liberation. Like I said, Dharana or focus, concentration is the sixth limb. So it's the precursor to meditation. And in modern life we are often referring to Dharana practices Or concentration as meditation itself. But we can think of it as sort of a two parter. We concentrate to get to a state of absorption or sustained concentration on a point of focus. And we can practice Dharana by focusing on the breath. Maybe we're focusing on mantra, maybe a candle flame. We can think of mindfulness as a way to practice Durana as well. So that might mean full attention to whatever you're doing, which is so hard to do in modern life. When we're pulled in a lot of directions, it's so easy to pause one task and pick up your phone. And because you've had a thought about something else, we have a lot of things that can pull us one way or another. So Darana practices again, which we typically call meditation now. Or focusing is so important and it really helps get us there. The Bhagavad Gita, in addition to the yoga sutras, also speaks about meditation. And it speaks of it as a form of devotion and self discipline because it does take a good amount of discipline to sit with one's own thoughts. The Bhagavad Gita says when meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering, like the flame of a lamp in a windless place. Wouldn't it be nice to have an illuminated mind all the time? Meditation is not a way to escape according to these practices, but it's really a form of radical presence of being here and now, truly being with yourself. And it can also be this form of self love. Because when we are able to observe our thoughts, our feelings, our emotions and be in this seat of the observer, this feeling of calm can come. And that might come with a lot of practice over time with tolerating the discomfort and with a lot of discipline and devotion to our different concentration practices. So you can think of Dharana or concentration as like doing reps in the gym and as the meditation as the result of all those reps and that we're just strong all the time. So meditation can fit into modern life so beautifully.
[00:10:57] It can be this daily active nervous system, regulation of awareness, of connection. There are so many benefits to it. One, it can improve your focus and your memory. Because meditation practices as we know them today are essentially focusing practices in a world where it can be very difficult to focus. It can help regulate stress and anxiety. So it helps calm the nervous system, increases compassion and emotional resilience. And really a lot of that's through self compassion. There are also different yogic and Buddhist techniques that use meditation as a form of compassion toward others. Those are Called metta meditations, it can reconnect us to the present moment. So when our mind wants to take us anywhere but here and now, meditation focuses us right back there. And the spaciousness that that can bring can offer spiritual insights and internal clarity. So oftentimes when we have a problem, it can be really tempting to look everywhere else for the answer. But sometimes all we need is space and quiet and some time to ourselves. And oftentimes when we give ourselves that, the answer just appears. I've always felt more inspired by a shower than like a whiteboard. For instance, the noise of it helps helps me draw inward or practice pratyahara. I can just focus on what I'm doing. I don't need my phone in there. And suddenly all the creative ideas start coming and I I've always loved a good brainstorming shower, even if that wasn't the the purpose of it in the first place. So meditation doesn't have to look like a silent retreat in your daily life, although you can do that if you want. There are vipassana retreats all over the world where you can go be in silence for days at a time. It could be just sitting for three minutes after a yoga class. It could be truly focusing on your journaling or your breath work, your mantra repetition. Maybe it's taking a walk without headphones. Maybe it's doing some cleaning around your house while only focusing on the cleaning. Maybe it is spending time with a loved one and truly being with them like they are your point of focus. You're not distracted. You're not trying to think of rebuttals or judgments. You're just allowing them to speak and you're truly with them.
[00:13:20] It might mean listening to a song and truly listening to it. It's really about being radically present. What are different ways you might be able to do that in your daily life? So you might be able to incorporate these with easy practices. Like maybe there's one minute of breath awareness before you open your phone. Maybe you're repeating mantra while you're making tea or listening to mantra in your headphones. Maybe you're taking a walking meditation on your lunch break. So think about the ways you might be able to incorporate more withdrawal of the senses into your life. So cutting out some of the noise, more focused practices. And they can look like pretty much anything as long as you are truly focusing on that singular task. And then you might think of for true meditation. What is your higher point of focus? Who are you devoted to? What world do you wish to see? Who is your higher self and softening your eyes, going inward and spending time with that higher ideal. And it's amazing what that can do. So I want to thank you for exploring this important topic with me today. I hope that it demystifies meditation a bit and helps you understand the roots of it and perhaps encourages you to try different meditative practices. I want to remind you that meditation is a practice of returning again and again with compassion. So built in to meditation, I think, is this failure in a way. So as we're focusing on mantra or on a singular thing, the mind is likely going to wander. It might not with lots and lots and lots of practice or just on a good day, but it's going to wander. So one of the ways we do these reps, like I talked about earlier, is noticing when that happens and then bringing your focus back. And if you sit and you do that over and over and over and over, you're going to build mental fortitude and strength. You're going to find more spaciousness, more connection, more calm. All of the beautiful things that come with meditation. It's been practiced for many thousands of years. It's accessible to anybody, it's completely free, and it really will do nothing but benefit your life in this beautiful way. If you'd like, I'll offer a couple journaling questions. One is what's one belief I've held about meditation that I can let go of? And the other is how can I make space for even two minutes of presence each day? I'll recommend, if you want to add more mindfulness to your yoga practice, to try my yoga Practice Journal. It's a really easy single page of prompts that you can return to practice after practice to take that moment to integrate yoga into your daily life. A moment of mindfulness, of intention. And of course, you can learn more about meditation in our 200 hour yoga teacher training that we hold every single year. You can learn more about it on the True Love Yoga website. I'd love to work with you more deeply on this topic. Thank you so much for listening today. Have a beautiful mindful meditative day. Until next time. Om Shanti, Om. Peace.
